Summary: Chapter One-Three: Jax and Joe have made it off the Ponderosa traveling to San Francisco with Adam and Hoss hot on their heels. Ben is also waiting for them there. They are enjoying their adventure and are even helped by an elderly couple. Adam and Hoss on the other hand have been robbed, but the same couple comes to the rescue now Adam and Hoss are on their way again.
Chapter 4: San Francisco
Jax and Joe:
After staying with Ebenezer and Ethel both children were both quiet for the first time during the trip. Finally Joe said,
"Why did Ebenezer keep going on about this being a dangerous road?
"I was trying to figure that out too. It's a road to a town, no different than the one we take every day to Virginia City for school."
"The only danger I thought about was the animals that's why we brought the shot guns, but he made it seem more than that."
"He also made it sound like Pa is going to be mad about us using this road. I thought Pa would be angry about us leaving the Ponderosa and going to San Francisco without permission," Jax said.
"Me too. Nothing's happened to us and it won't if we're careful. So I don't see why Ebenezer kept saying it was more."
"No use thinking about it now."
"We can't change anything and I wouldn't so far," Joe said smiling. "This has been our greatest adventure ever."
"Agreed. Do you see that?" Jax said in awe pointing to the buildings rising in front of her.
The city sprung up and was more than they could ever imagine.
Both Jax and Joe were speechless as the traveled into the city. Buildings, people, noise, and smells surrounded them overloading their senses. Joe was the first to speak,
"Pa and Adam always use the livery on Market Street. Let's take Miss Lily and Cochise there. They don't like all of this noise."
"Don't you think Adam might look there?" Jax said. "I don't want him to find us just yet. He'll drag us home and we won't see anything."
"I don't care I'm only putting Cochise in a place I know is safe."
"I didn't think about that."
Jax followed her brother still enamored by the sheer size of the city. Once they were at the livery. Jax looked for the livery boy. A boy about sixteen came over and rudely yell,
"What do ya want?"
"To stable our horses obviously or we wouldn't be in a livery with them. How much would that be?" Jax said.
"Five dollars a day per horse," the boy said glaring at the little kid who dared to talk to him like that. "Paid up front, so I know you have the money."
"Why would we come in here without money? We know things aren't free we're not stupid," Joe asked.
He wanted to add like you are but the boy was much bigger than he was. Joe was afraid Jax would it he grabbed her arm and squeezed. Jax knew what that meant and kept the retort in her head.
"I don't know about that," the boy said. "Most farm kids are."
"Look, are you going to take our money or what?" Jax asked meeting his rudeness straight on.
He about ready to wallop both of them when his boss walked in,
"Jimmy, what's going on?"
"Nutin, these kids wanta stable their horses, Mr. Philips."
"Do they got money?"
"Yes sir."
"Take it and send them on their way," the owner said and started to walk away.
"Sir, how much is it to stable our horses?" Jax asked looking at Jimmy who paled immediately.
"Both are $2.00 a day," Mr. Philips said.
"Funny that the price dropped from $5.00 per horse a day," Joe said.
"Guess we're not dumb farm kids after all." Jax said taking their stuff. "Thank you sir."
Joe and Jax walked out as they were walking away the heard Mr. Philips yelling at Jimmy and Jimmy pleading for his job.
"Hey, sis don't argue with people head on here. You don't look like a girl, so that kid could have walloped you," Joe said.
"Don't worry, I could handle someone like Jimmy," Jax said confidently.
"I couldn't handle a guy like Jimmy in a fight," Joe said but dropped the subject knowing she wouldn't back down.
Jax looked at the buildings, it was like walking through a forest, but instead of trees there were buildings everywhere.
"Have you ever seen anything like this?"
"No, it's amazing," Jax said laughing.
"How many stories do you think that is?" Joe said pointing to a building.
"Adam said to count the windows going up. So it looks like four."
"Jax there are so many people, I feel like I am walking through the herd back home," Joe whispered.
"I was thinking the same thing," Jax said smiling. "We need to find a hotel."
"I don't want to go to the hotel first," Joe said.
"We can't carry shot guns and bags through the streets of San Francisco."
"Alright, there's just so much to see and I want to see everything. Where should we stay?"
"Not the Grand, Pa always stays there."
"How about that one," Joe said pointing to a sign that said Imperial Hotel.
Jax and Joe hit a big hurdle when they arrived at the hotel. The clerk took one look at them and shook his head saying he wasn't going to give them a room.
"Sir, we are meeting our father here on Thursday," Jax said.
"We have enough money to pay in advance," Joe added.
"Two boys, without a parent will be too much to handle and I don't want the trouble," the man snipped.
"Sir, if you have the slightest problem with us, feel free to kick us out and keep the money," Jax said. "Plus our Pa will be here in two days, do you think he'll be happy if we with us if we get kicked out? If you don't want the business that's fine, Pa only comes to San Francisco once a month for business."
The desk clerk glared at the children but didn't want to lose the business.
"I need an extra day paid for in advance, just in case you mess up the room."
"Here you go." Jax said handing him more money.
"What name are you registering?" He asked.
"Cartwright," Joe said without thinking.
As soon as they were out of the hearing of the manager, Jax punched her brother's arm.
"What?" Joe said rubbing his arms.
"If you want to see everything, we can't leave Adam any clues."
Jax and Joe walked quietly up the stairs.
"Can you believe this room?" Jax said looking around. Joe was at the window looking out.
"Look, you can see the ships from here." Joe said bringing Jax running to the widow.
"Let's go. We only have a few hours until its dark," Joe said.
"We need to leave most of our money here."
"Why?" Joe asked.
"Don't you remember reading Oliver Twist? Pick pockets have to be here too."
"Didn't think of that, where should we hide it?"
"Under the mattress and lock our door, plus I don't think people will come in our room looking for money. We're just kids."
"Are you ready?" Joe asked
"Lead the way."
Joe stopped at the desk,
"Sir, will you please point us towards the docks?"
"That's no place for kids," the man said.
"Thank you for your concern, but we want to go. So will you please point the way?" Jax said smiling.
"That way," He said pointing down the road.
They finally made it down to the docks. There were the ships sitting tall and proud in the water. Like the buildings Jax and Joe couldn't believe the size of the ships sitting in front of them. Their sails tied to their masts like they were waiting for the next adventure.
"How many ships are out there? " Jax asked this. Some of the ships were tied to the docks while other were anchored in the Bay.
"No idea, look how big they are. I never thought they would be that big. Let's get closer."
The ships bobbed up and down like the corks they used for fishing and the sailors had them tied up like horses. Joe guessed so they wouldn't get away.
Joe and Jax snuck on the docks. The men were unloading packages off many of the ships. Before they knew it they were standing next to one of the ships and were going to sneak on it, when they were stopped by a rough voice.
"Captain Green don't have no kids on his ship. Won't hire ya."
"We're not looking for a job, just looking at the ships," Joe said.
"No place for kids. GET!" The man yelled.
"Sir, we're just looking, how could it hurt?" Jax said. To that the man cuffed her hard.
"I said get."
Jax and Joe ran away as fast as they could. Jax had tears running down her face.
"You deserved that, I told you to think before you speak. You're not a girl right now."
Jax was mad so she punched him and felt much better. Joe let it go, but was getting annoyed with his sister.
Adam and Hoss:
Adam and Hoss arrived in San Francisco about four hours after Joe and Jax exhausted.
"Come on, let's stable these horses on Market Street, Pa always stays at the Grand. We can find him there," Adam said.
"I don't want to hear what he's going to say" Hoss said.
"He knows its Jax and Joe's fault."
"He's still going to blister both of our ears for not watching them better," Hoss said.
"I know, but it shouldn't be that bad," Adam said.
"Adam, I'm too tired to listen to anything tonight. Those kids have had us running raged for almost a week. I just want a bath and bed tonight."
"You're right brother. Hopefully Pa will realize that," Adam said knowing that would never happened, "I'll remind him they have money and will find a hotel so it's no use looking for them tonight. Let's stable the horses"
The men rode the horses slowly through the town making it to Market Street and the livery. Jimmy shuffled out to meet them. Mr. Philips chose to tan him instead of firing him.
"Need to stable these two for a few days," Adam said.
"Two dollars a day for both," he said.
"Adam," Hoss said excitedly. "Look."
Standing there were Miss Lily and Cochise.
"Kid, when did those horses get here?" Adam asked.
"About four hours ago. Two farm boys were riding them and tried to get me fired," the boy grumbled scowling.
Mr. Philips and said glaring at Jimmy, "Good afternoon, gentlemen. I hope Jimmy is being polite."
"Yes sir," Hoss said wondering why Jimmy had said that the twins tried to get him fired.
"We were just asking about those two horses there," Adam said pointing at Miss Lily and Cochise .
"Yeah, two kids. Real young shouldn't be in the city alone. Why?"
Again Hoss and Adam let out a audible sigh of relief.
"They belong to our much younger siblings and you are absolutely right they shouldn't be here. Do you need any money for those two horses? Adam asked.
"No they paid three days in advance," Mr. Philips said.
"Do you know which way they were heading?" Hoss asked.
"No, someone needed to learn a hard lesson," Mr. Philips said looking pointedly at Jimmy.
"Thank you sir," Adam said walking away.
"You're welcome," Mr. Philips said.
"Come on Hoss."
The walk to the Grand took only moments. Ben was sitting in the restaurant exhausted after an afternoon of searching and worry. He looked at his two oldest children as they walked in and was filled with anger for their letting this happen. He didn't say a word to either of them just pointed to the stairs.
The boys walked after him dreading what he was going to say. Ben sat and looked at his oldest son waiting for some sort of explanation.
"Well?" He finally said.
"Your two youngest are here in town somewhere. Their horses are at the livery on Market Street. The owner remembered, I think because of some argument they had with the livery boy."
"How did this all happen?" Ben asked trying to stay calm. He knew it wasn't Adam's fault.
"Jax and Joe came up with a plan that took me two days to figure out." Adam said.
"How did they do that?" Ben said surprised, Adam was usually quick to figure out when the twins were up to something.
"It was so intricate; first Jax wanted to learn about the maps, Joe stole money from your desk during my argument with Hoss, Jax asked Hop Sing to teach her how to cook so she could steal food for the trip, they broke the west fence to keep Hoss and myself busy, finally they lied to Hop Sing saying they were staying with us up in the west pasture. Once I was home and found them gone, I realized exactly where they were going. Jax had let me go with her fascination about getting to San Francisco." Adam said not wanting to look at his father.
"So you left them alone!" Ben yelled.
"Pa we had to fix the fence and I didn't think it would be a big deal," Adam said feeling guilty.
"So do you still believe that?"
"No sir. They promised to be good. I thought they would be fine with Hop Sing," Adam said.
"Adam, you know better than that. Those two fool Hop Sing all the time. You should have made sure Hop Sing knew they were not staying on the ridge with you," Ben roared standing up.
"Pa, this isn't my fault," Adam said getting angry himself but knew better than to yell back. It was getting harder at the moment and what Ben said next pushed him over the edge.
"I know the twins are at fault Adam," Ben yelled, "but you could have stopped it before it happened by using some common sense!"
"Pa, those two are impossible! If you would keep a tighter rein on them they wouldn't have dared do this! You let them get away with murder and when they do something wrong you have the gall to blame me!" Adam yelled back. Ben slapped his son's face without even thinking and felt sorry the moment he did it.
Adam stormed out of the room walking down to the bar for a drink. Hoss sat there not believing what just happened and didn't want to be in the room alone with his extremely angry father.
"Eric," Ben said still seething.
"Yes sir," Hoss said.
"What happened on the trip? I thought you would have at least caught up with them."
Hoss really didn't want to answer that question because he knew another explosion was coming.
"Well you see Pa, Adam and I were robbed."
"YOU WERE ROBBED!"
"Yes sir, we were. They took our money, horses and guns. If it weren't for an elderly couple we would still be on the road."
"What about the twins? Were they robbed?" Ben thundered.
"Luckily, for Jax and Joe the same couple kept them last night so they weren't robbed. The couple let us borrow horses, to get here."
"So where are the twins now?" Ben said.
"No idea. Adam thinks they're going to check into a hotel and we'll have an easier time finding them in the morning," Hoss said.
"Finding two extremely elusive and smart children in a city this big? Not as easy as you or your brother may think," Ben said "Go downstairs with your brother and get yourself a room here."
"Pa, we were robbed so we don't have money," Hoss said.
Ben held out some money that Hoss reluctantly took. Hoss was out the door right after that.
Hoss walked over to his brother and ordered a beer.
"That went well," Adam said sarcastically.
"Yep. I pity those two when he finds them."
"I don't, they deserve everything he gives them and more," Adam said.
"I hope they enjoy their day tomorrow," Hoss said.
"Yeah, it may be their last," Adam said "Because if he doesn't kill them I will for what they just put me through."